Have you ever taken one of those spiritual gifts inventories? You know the ones. You fill out the info and then it tells you what your spiritual gifts are? I think their purpose is to help followers of Christ plug into the local church. Ya think? I was wondering what would have happened if they’d [...]

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I was asked recently to speak on pride at Sterling College’s chapel service. The first thought in my head was, “I’d be really good at that.” The second thought, “I hope the students think I’m the best chapel speaker ever!” Wow. Pride, at least in my life, is that insidious. Pride’s disgusting. I’m disgusting. Christianity [...]

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Mourning isn’t just about loss of life. We can also mourn the loss of a dream, the realization that a situation isn’t going to get any better. I realized lately that I’ve been in a state of mourning—grieving actually over something that simply isn’t going to happen. We as human beings are pretty much who [...]

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Sunday’s service was amazing! We heard evangelist Chuck Millhuff speak. This man is in his 70’s, been an evangelist most of his life, spoken around the world and now is the resident evangelist at our church. Still very Hollywood handsome and a very sharp dresser, I wondered what on earth this guy was going to [...]

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As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God (Psalm 42:1-2). Urbana ’09 was one of the best Urbanas I’ve ever been to. The numbers were down—17,000 instead of the 23,000 of ’06. But the quality of each person there [...]

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My girlfriend and her husband have just taken a pregnant teen in to live with them. They have two kids, a set of parents to care for and both work fulltime jobs. Wow! I don’t know if I could do that. Ministry is messy. The young girl got pregnant while away at college. When she [...]

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In 1991 the average Muscovite woman had 18 abortions in a lifetime. (The national average for women across Russia at that time was six). The procedure became so common and such an everyday occurrence that most Muscovite women ceased calling it an abortion and decided to call it douche or a cleansing. It was a [...]

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I hate folding laundry. Don’t even get me started on putting up the dishes. I don’t like monotonous work like making my bed every morning, going to the grocery store, putting gasoline in the car, or even showering. (Sorry, but personal hygiene is SO monotonous; have you even seen my hair?). I’ve always struggled with [...]

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Remember Billy Joel’s 1970′s hit “Just the Way You Are?” I like that song. Don’t go changin’ to try and please me…I love you just the way you are. Pretty. I like it. Anne Lamott writes in her book Travelling Mercies, “God loves you just the way you are and He loves you too much [...]

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I’m terrible with directions. I think it has something to do with being left handed. Really. I mean it. My mother-in-law is left handed too. Once I was driving her to the store and she was giving me directions. She said, “Turn right.” And I turned left instead. OMW. “Ruth! I turned left, sorry. I [...]

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